The GRAPES-3 experiment is a special telescope-array established in Ooty to detect muons from cosmic ray showers. The experiment has detected a surge in muon intensity correlated with a weakening of the earth’s magnetic field due to a solar storm that hit the earth on June 22, 2015. The results have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters. An Indo-Japanese collaboration, this experiment is unique in that it can be used to study solar storms and space weather at distances up to two times the earth’s radius, unlike satellite-based studies that can yield information only about what is happening in their vicinity.
The muon is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 e and a spin of 1 / 2 , but with a much greater mass. It is classified as a lepton. As is the case with other leptons, the muon is not believed to have any sub-structure—that is, it is not thought to be composed of any simpler particles.
A coronal mass ejection (CME) left the sun on June 21, 2015 and, along with two such others that left the sun on June 18 and 19, reached earth on June 22, 2015. Solar flares are often followed by CMEs which are nothing but giant clouds of plasma which also contain embedded magnetic fields.
This CME was associated with a solar flare from the sunspot region 12371 near the central disc of the sun. This caused a solar storm and ensuing radio blackouts and Aurora Borealis. Analysing data from the GRAPES-3 muon-tracking telecope, scientists have inferred that while it lasted, the CME resulted in weakening the earth’s magnetic field, allowing high energy cosmic rays to burst through.
This method can serve as a monitor of solar storms. Galactic cosmic rays producing a muon burst were bent in the space surrounding the Earth over a volume that is 7 times that of the Earth, and hence they serve as a monitor of the solar storm over this volume. This is in stark contrast to the satellite based measurements that provide only in situ information.
The earth’s atmosphere provides a shield against UV rays and other incident particles. But its protection stretches to less than 100 km around the earth. The stronger protection comes from the earth’s magnetic field which stretches to around 10 times the radius of the earth – about 60,000 km beyond the surface.
This magnetic field deflects most of the galactic cosmic rays – high-energy charged particles that are incident on earth from space. The magnetic field forms the first line of defence against cosmic rays by imposing a threshold energy per unit charge. Only charged particles that have higher energy than this threshold can fall on the earth.
The analysis shows the weakening of the earth’s magnetic field because of the coronal mass ejection.
There is a 32-minute lapse between the muon burst and the arrival of the interplanetary magnetic field. This is because of the time taken for the galactic cosmic rays to diffuse through the magnetised plasma.
Super storms
The largest recorded solar storm in history is the Carrington event of 1859, which disrupted telegraph lines on earth for several hours. This storm caused Aurorae to be recorded even as far south as Florida State in the USA.
If a storm of this magnitude should occur today, it would cripple all the VLSI-based communication systems, smart devices, mobile phones, computer networks and satellites, causing chaos.
Therefore, detecting such muon bursts could serve as an early warning in the case of a superstorm.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.